Monthly Archives: January 2013

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I made soup last night. I added all sorts of yummy and healthy ingredients — tomatoes, chicken stock, onions, ground beef, corn, green beans, sea salt. I tasted it about 30 minutes into boiling, and it was awful. What do I do?! God spoke to me, “Add a bay leaf.” And I did. About 15 minutes later, and the soup was amazing.

I kept things very simple, but I may add a letter of the week when we do this again. I got out a large baggie, pulled out a bottle of I’ll-never-use baby lotion, threw in some blue food coloring, some colorful craft beads, taped it shut and taped it to the window.

John loves it! He really couldn’t believe I was letting him play with it. It’s been up for a few days now and still holding strong.

In retrospect…. next time I will do a smaller baggie AND use aloe vera or hand sanitizer for that “clear” look!

Like this:

We just completed our Dd week and John had a blast! We studied dogs, ducks, donkeys, and dad : )

This schedule keeps things ordered. I’ve type-written in what I want to do as far as language, and I make sure that I also fit in at least an additional sensory and practical life activity per week. I use Homeschool Creations’ great Preschool Schedule.

Every week, I put out six tot trays out for the week and I try to be intentional with activities that correlate with each of the four Montessori learning categories: Language, Sensory, Mathematics, Practical Life. Our Tot Trays are out on our shelf all week. John can play with them at any time, but sometimes I’ll take one out intentionally for us to play together.

This week, we had a purple sensory bowl. John likes to play “guess” with this — we put a cloth on top and he guesses what he is touching — “a purple…..!”

A car parking lot! At first I didn’t put the numbers on the cars, but he was lining the cars up so nicely that I decided to challenge him. I put little stickers with numbers on them, and I am so impressed by how well he matched the numbers on the cars to the numbers in the “parking lot”. This shows me that if I challenge him — he can succeed! Dad played this with him which motivated him to look at the shapes of the numbers, as well : )

John also enjoyed this simple activity — opening a spice jar and sticking the stems in the holes!

John loves these Melissa & Doug Pattern Puzzles! He can do these too fast, I have to find something a little more difficult for him. (We have pattern blocks and I have printed out some shapes and animals from Prekinder.com, but he can’t quite do it because they don’t “fit” — any suggestions?)

Painted eggs and egg carton match.

Our Lauri pegs letter D!

Bible verse of the week:

He will take great delight in you. Zephaniah 3:17

We use the ABC bible verse songs from Songs for Saplings. These songs are so catchy, beautiful, not “children’s music annoying,” and I find myself singing and learning and memorizing the bible verses along with John. Carisa at 1plus1plus1equals1 has made coordinating ABC Bible Verses posters which have really helped with his memorization as well.

Letter of the week: Dd

Our curriculum consists of 1plus1plus1equals1‘s Tot School ABC’s. We don’t do everything that she includes in her packs, but we do most.

We put up our bible verse, a Dd small poster from Tot School, and I just got these wonderful Montessori sandpaper letters. Can you believe they are only $13 from Amazon for upper and lowercase? I was so excited to find these, they are very sturdy cardboard and I think they will last a long time! We put them up on the wall as well so he could feel the letter every morning and whenever he wanted to!

Here we are using dry erase markers on heavy duty sheet protectors — coloring the little ducks in the Dd. We have these thin tipped markers.

We also took out his Tot Time Notebook, created by Carisa at 1+1+1=1, as a little review. This is so fun for him — he has all his ABC pages in a three-ring binder and I put them in heavy duty sheet protectors, so he can color with dry erase markers and erase easily and do it again! This is an awesome tool, and I am again, grateful to Carisa for thinking of and sharing it!

We also made a cute little Donkey from the Arts and Crafts for 2s from Abeka. I really like the pictures in this book and he enjoys painting them and coloring them too!

Another resource in 1plus1plus1equals1‘s Tot School ABC’s is a vocabulary page relating to her object or animal for the letter of the week. John especially enjoyed this week’s vocabulary page and we learned all about different types of birds (because Dd is for Duck!) We put it on the wall so we could talk about the birds’ names and their features regularly.

We put his work on the clothesline above his bed, between two windows!

We also used the dump truck pages from Royal Baloo‘s Terrific Truck ABCs. John loves everything truck, so these are perfect — they are on the right in the picture. We hang our pictures up on a clothesline above his bed.

Book of the week:

I love the Five in a Row curriculum, the premise is that you should read the same children’s book to your child for five days in a row, all week. We have Before Five in a Row, and are reading through some of the books in there and also picking books according to our season, theme, or interest. Homeschool Creations and Homeschool Share have many printable resources for the Five in a Row series. Other wonderful moms have provided literature-based printables on their sites too. I am taking full advantage.

Our duck sensory bin was fairly simple. I have not yet gotten the bug to go out and buy tons of stuff for my sensory bins…. All that is too expensive and too much space is needed to be properly organized. I’m not saying I won’t get there in wanting to add tons of intricate things, but right now, we’re keeping it simple.

I made my pond sensory bin with rocks, fish greenery, a big rubber duck, two little duckies and a pelican thrown in for good measure. He is older since the last time we did this one and loved holding the rocks, sorting them into little white containers.

And he also loved throwing them…. He helped clean up… sort of : )

Mini book of the week:

Our mini book this week was a wonderful little song book of “The Little White Duck” from the Arts and Crafts for 2s from Abeka. I laminated it and put a little binder ring on it. He kept wanting to sing it over…and over… and over….

John loved playing with his bead maze. This has been in our basement toy room, but is now really able to concentrate. He talks about the beads’ colors and shapes!

His pattern puzzles and car parking lot were math-oriented, but now I see we’ll have to challenge him more with numbers 1 – 5 since he has shown an interest!

Eating gluten-free pancakes with a D in blueberries :)

I love that the Tot School ABCs curriculum already has a lot of sensory elements. Pom pom magnets, play dough, using different writing materials. We try to be intentional with at least one or two additional sensory activities per week as well.

We have also enjoyed going to a weekly toddler music class.

Our Dd collection on our refrigerator. (We use a lot of Melissa & Doug magnetic letters and his Leapfrog Magnetic letters — I found this at a garage sale, but I would have paid full price!)

This week, we had more snow time!

Washing the sink for mom (don’t worry, just with vinegar and water!)

I need more practical life ideas. I have found tons at Counting Coconuts, but her trays are so beautiful and there is a lot of stuff to “buy” — any other great links to share?

Like this:

I love my little nursling babies. But, boy, do my nipples hurt sometimes. I
am talking about the achy, oh, I let him/her nurse for way. too. long.
feeling. (Not thrush, which is that sharp dagger feeling, which in that
case, try grapefruit seed extract or good ol’ prescription Diflucan.)

But if you want your nipples to just feel good again, look no farther thanWise Ways Herbals’ Calendula oil! This stuff is a miracle. Before I came
across it (at around 4 months into my nursing career with my son), I tried
everything from lanolin to coconut oil to the Motherease Thrush and sore
nipples ointment. Nothing worked. Is it too much to ask to just feel
normal again? No, it’s not. This oil is a miracle worker.

The ingredients are only olive oil and calendula extract. I put it on at
night, with my beloved Nuk brand nursing pads (these are the flat ones, the
only ones I use). And the next morning, your nipples are brand new! I do
this for two nights after I feel them begin to hurt.

Wise Ways Herbals’ Calendula oil is only around $16.99, and the whole bottle
has lasted me through two children! I contacted their customer service
regarding the lifetime of the oil and I received a timely email back
explaining that the shelf life is about four years or until the olive oil
base smells “funny.” (My son is 29 months and I nursed him for 19 months
and my wee daughter is only 4 months at this point, and I know it will last through her as well.)

Like this:

My mom bought the beautiful Small Bible Felt Set from Betty Lukens for my children/me for Christmas. I fell in love with this company when my son got a farm felt book as a gift (but the gift-giver kindly had already cut everything out!) I was grateful to her for such a great gift. There are more backgrounds and overlays that I plan to buy (half the price of the boards), but this is enough to get me started! Now this has been a challenge. Cutting about 12 huge sheets of felt out.

Will there be a light at the end of the tunnel? Yes!

I am planning on starting a bible story (or bible theme, such as Creation, which is more than one story) a week. There are 182 stories included in the wonderful included guide which has a retelling of the stories and lists what felt pieces are needed for each story. But of course, you can tell more stories than than if something isn’t included that you want to focus on.

And an example of inside of the book:

I have decided to organize in this way:

I rough cut everything and organized according to the TINY numbers on each felt piece

The back of the guide has a detailed list of each item and its corresponding number. I made labels and put them on each of my envelopes so things are easier to find. (Betty Lukens does sell an organizer for $40, but I like using my system for other homeschooling materials, so I decided to keep with a system that I like.)

I organized using Target’s Up and Up brand of snap envelopes (they can hold 9×12 pages) and put all my envelopes in a square canvas bin (also from Target)

Each Sunday, I will only have to cut out 10-20 pieces for that week’s story — I will try to have two or three done in advance so there aren’t any cutting emergencies.

To my husband: No, I am not crazy. Our children will grow in their knowledge of the Bible and the Lord through wonderfully illustrated and vibrantly colored stories! I can’t wait to get started!

Like this:

We are excited to share our Cc week of alphabet Tot School! John loves and asks for “school” every morning.

This schedule keeps things ordered. I’ve type-written in what I want to do as far as language, and I make sure that I also fit in at least an additional sensory and practical life activity per week. I use Homeschool Creations’ great Preschool Schedule.

Every week, I put out six tot trays out for the week and I try to be intentional with activities that correlate with each of the four Montessori learning categories: Language, Sensory, Mathematics, Practical Life. Our Tot Trays are out on our shelf all week. John can play with them at any time, but sometimes I’ll take one out intentionally for us to play together.

This week, we had a pom-pom-ice-tray-tong-sort.

We had an orange sensory bin. John likes to play “guess” with this — we put a cloth on top and he guesses what he is touching.

An orange funnel with an orange piece of felt. I was looking for more orange activities and found this funnel. Then I thought about how difficult it is to put things through a funnel. John had a hard time putting his finger deep in the hole and then pulling the felt through the other side. A great fine-motor activity!

A clothespin color sort. This is an old Melissa & Doug wooden crate I had, so I colored some clothespins and parts of the crate and he works on colors and pinching clothespins. He loved this and I was so impressed by how quickly he can do it! I need to challenge him more!

A C is for Cat lacing card. He carried this “big cat” everywhere he went!

And his first little purse. I don’t use this Vera Bradley coin purse anymore, and he had a blast trying to open and close it. I put a little mirror, a little measuring tape, and a little elephant in it.

Bible verse of the week:

We will be changed into His likeness. 2 Corinthians 3:18

We use the ABC bible verse songs from Songs for Saplings. These songs are so catchy, beautiful, not “children’s music annoying,” and I find myself singing and learning and memorizing the bible verses along with John. Carisa at 1plus1plus1equals1 has made coordinating ABC Bible Verses posters which have really helped with his memorization as well.

Letter of the week: Cc

Our curriculum consists of 1plus1plus1equals1‘s Tot School ABC’s. We don’t do everything that she includes in her packs, but we do most.

This week’s object/animal from her curriculum was a cat. John loved it, was obsessed with it, couldn’t get enough of these cats! Which is hilarious because I hate cats — or I’m just very allergic and have told myself that I can’t stand them. Either way, I hope this boy won’t be heartbroken that we can never have a real one!

Stamping the letter C on his C is for Cat page. He wasn’t real excited about this. (You can see him holding his beloved cat lacing card from his tot tray.)

Do-A-Dot markers on his C is for Cat page. He is using his left hand in this one.

This week’s big break-through was that I taught him how to hold a marker correctly! I bought these little writing claws, but they weren’t really working with the markers we have and John was frustrated. So I just told him and showed him how to do it. And now he holds a marker properly-ish. Look at the difference below! He is really improving on coloring “on” the pictures. I showed him what coloring in the lines means too, which of course I don’t expect him to do, but wanted him to see what he could do, if he wanted to try. Here we are using dry erase markers on heavy duty sheet protectors. We have these thin tipped markers.

We also used the crane pages from Royal Baloo‘s Terrific Truck ABCs. John loves everything truck, so these are perfect — they are on the right in the picture. (I’m creating some…. very…. elementary continutations to this because she only did letters A – D). We hang our pictures up on a clothesline above his bed. He loves looking at them and showing everyone who comes in, “I did that!”

Book of the week:

We chose Corduroy by Donald Freeman!

I love the Five in a Row curriculum, the premise is that you should read the same children’s book to your child for five days in a row, all week. We have Before Five in a Row, and are reading through some of the books in there and also picking books according to our season, theme, or interest. Homeschool Creations and Homeschool Share have many printable resources for the Five in a Row series. Other wonderful moms have provided literature-based printables on their sites too. I am taking full advantage.

My sister gave us her Cordoroy bear and John was so surprised to see it as part of our Corduroy Sensory Bin!

Cute buttons from Oriental Trading, cotton balls for the soft mattress, some sorting bowls, with the book and Corduroy himself!

Mini book of the week:

Our mini book this week was a wonderful printable book from Homeschool Creations. It corresponds with our book of the week while focusing on button shapes! We ended up including it with the sensory bin and John loved it!

John loved being introduced to these counting bears. I gave them to him to see what he would do and he immediately started sorting by color! Later, dad helped him make patterns.

Our Cc collection on our refrigerator. Lots of fun with C this week. (Though he has mistakenly called it S sometimes.) (We use a lot of Melissa & Doug magnetic letters and his Leapfrog Magnetic letters — I found this at a garage sale, but I would have paid full price!)

I love that the Tot School ABCs curriculum already has a lot of sensory elements. Pom pom magnets, play dough, using different writing materials. We try to be intentional with at least one or two additional sensory activities per week as well.

This week, we had Shaving Cream exploration time! I gave him a good squirt of shaving cream on the kitchen table with some utensils and bowls and he loved it! At first he didn’t want to get his hands dirty, but then he realized that that was part of the fun!

We have also enjoyed going to a weekly toddler music class. He is very interested in guitars right now. He got a little one for Christmas. And he also loves playing on our keyboard.

Like this:

We are so fortunate to live close to a farm that has free-range chickens. They produce wonderful eggs. I don’t particularly like eggs – “over easy” or such – but I will take them scrambled with cheese or baked in a cookie. : ) My husband eats at least three eggs every morning, and now that I’ve started buying these orange-y yolks, he won’t go back.

Chickens that eat organic and are treated humanely produce gorgeous orange yolks packed with tons of nutrients and delicious saturated fats and cholesterol (and yes, that’s good for you!) I do, in a pinch, buy “organic” or “cage-free” eggs from the store, and even these have eggs with very light yellow yolks; they are a hoax and do not have the value that farm eggs have. Here are his eggs from this morning: (cooked on stainless steel and in butter, of course!)

Like this:

We are excited to complete our second week of alphabet Tot School! Last week we worked on Bb!

This schedule keeps things ordered. I’ve type-written in what I want to do as far as language, and I make sure that I also fit in at least an additional sensory and practical life activity per week. I use Homeschool Creations’ great Preschool Schedule.

Every week, I put out six tot trays out for the week and I try to be intentional with activities that correlate with each of the four Montessori learning categories: Language, Sensory, Mathematics, Practical Life. Our Tot Trays are out on our shelf all week. John can play with them at any time, but sometimes I’ll take one out intentionally for us to play together. This week, we had a Lego Farm Match Up, a ball sensory bin, a bean bag toss game, letter B from the Lauri A-Z Pegboard Stacker set, cute new stacker I found at Ikea, and the Farm felt book from Betty Lukens.

Bible verse of the week:

Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” John 6:48

We use the ABC bible verse songs from Songs for Saplings. These songs are so catchy, beautiful, not “children’s music annoying,” and I find myself singing and learning and memorizing the bible verses along with John. Carisa at 1plus1plus1equals1 has made coordinating ABC Bible Verses posters which have really helped with his memorization as well.

Letter of the week: Bb

Our curriculum consists of 1plus1plus1equals1‘s Tot School ABC’s. We don’t do everything that she includes in her packs, but we do most. We couple this with a couple of pages from Royal Baloo‘s Terrific Truck ABCs. John loves everything truck, so these are perfect!

Using dry erase markers on heavy duty sheet protectors. We have these thin tipped markers.

Stamping the letter B into the Ball picture.

We hang our pictures up on a clothesline above his bed. He loves looking at them and showing everyone who comes in, “I did that!”

And our vocabulary from Carisa’s Tot School ABCs was outdoor fun. John loved learning about the scooter and the trampoline.

I had a gift card to Toys R Us, and this week I bought a few more beloved Melissa & Doug learning activities. He looooves this little puzzle. I gave him Aa and Bb and after a few tries, he got the hang of it! I’ll put this in his learning basket every week (with “this week’s” and “last week’s” letters).

Book of the week:

I love the Five in a Row curriculum, the premise is that you should read the same children’s book to your child for five days in a row, all week. We have Before Five in a Row, and are reading through some of the books in there and also picking books according to our season, theme, or interest. Our book this week was a B book, Blueberries for Sal. I will try to coordinate the book with our letter each week. Homeschool Creations and Homeschool Share have many printable resources for the Five in a Row series. Other wonderful moms have provided literature-based printables on their sites too. I am taking full advantage.

We ate blueberries in honor of Blueberries for Sal. (The frozen ones are just as good to little ones! He loved them.)

Mini book of the week:

Our mini book this week was a wonderful printable book from Homeschool Creations. It corresponds with our book of the week. It focuses on directions. “Little bear is next to the tree, on top of the rock”, etc. I put velcro dots on the back of the cut out little bears and he loved putting them onto their corresponding page.

We worked with Lego Duplos and pattern blocks this week, but I didn’t get any pics — we were having too much fun!

Here he is with a sequence of balls, 1, 2, 3. He is getting the hang of it. This is mostly for recognition of 1, 2, 3 at this point.

Sorting his laminated bulldozer pictures. We also put magnets on the back and put them on the refrigerator.

Our Bb collection on our refrigerator. I added the size sort bulldozers from Royal Balooand the Bb puzzle from1+1+1=1 and some butterflies too. John loves this and was moving his letters and objects around all week. We also heard, “B says bbb, B says bbb, every letter makes a sound, B says bbb,” about 200 times this week! (From his Leapfrog Magnetic letters — I found this at a garage sale, but I would have paid full price!)

I love that the Tot School ABCs curriculum already has a lot of sensory elements. Pom pom magnets, play dough, using different writing materials. We try to be intentional with at least one or two additional sensory activities per week as well.

Sensory snow time! Thankfully, I thought to do this before all the snow melted the next day. Unfortunately, when I went outside to grab some with a spoon, it was pretty icy from melting. Next time, I’ll get some freshly fallen snow.

I don’t think John seemed to care that the snow wasn’t perfect. He loved playing with snow in the middle of the kitchen floor. I set him up with some bowls, funnels, empty spice jars, measuring spoons, and pots and pans. He played for a good 30 minutes. But then he started throwing, so it had to end. I think that there were too many tools to work with and next time I’ll just put two tools out. Maybe that will focus him a bit more.

Adding snow to his spice jar.

Measuring the snow with his little measuring spoons.

John has cut cucumbers before, but this is his first time with a banana! He love love loved this.

Helping make gluten-free pumpkin bread. This was delicious! (right now, we buy the 1:1 gluten-free flour mix, but I want to make it myself because that is getting expensive.)

Our letter craft of the week can be found as part of 1+1+1=1‘s Animal ABCs.

Like this:

The new year has begun with a brand new Tot School for my 29 month old boy! We have begun John’s official letter weeks, starting with Aa. Our curriculum consists of 1plus1plus1equals1‘s Tot School ABC’s. We don’t do everything that she includes in her packs, but we do most, and will add or subtract to suit John’s interests. We couple this with a couple of pages from Royal Baloo‘s Terrific Truck ABCs. John loves everything truck, so these are perfect! He has also gotten really excited about his ABC bible verse songs from Songs for Saplings. These songs are so catchy, and I find myself singing and learning and memorizing the bible verses along with him. Carisa at 1plus1plus1equals1 has made coordinating ABC Bible Verses which have really helped with his memorization as well.

I am a huge scheduler. I like to have it all written down, but every day I know that we will do things that aren’t on my lists and we won’t complete other things that I have written. But I like a visual of what I’d like to do, to keep myself sane. I use Homeschool Creations’ great Preschool Schedule.

We also I have decided to have six tot trays out for the week and I try to be intentional with activities that correlate with each of the four Montessori learning categories: Language, Sensory, Mathematics, Practical Life. Our Tot Trays are out on our shelf all week. John can play with them at any time, but sometimes I’ll take one out intentionally for us to play together. For A week, we had the letter A out from our Lauri A-Z Pegboard Stacker set, a yellow sensory bin, a pom-pom-tong-sorter game, our Melissa & Doug shape clock, some cute little color bins and color buttons (I wrote about this here), and our letter A is for Apple puzzle.

Bible verse of the week:

Keep me as the apple of your eye. Psalm 17:8

Letter of the week: Aa!

We colored with markers, crayons, dry erase, do-a-dot markers. We hang them all up in his room. He is so proud of himself and shows daddy his school work every night.

Our Aa on our fridge: I have collected the Aa’s we have in our house. He loves the Leapfrog Magnetic letters — I found this at a garage sale, but I would have paid full price!

Book of the week:

I love the Five in a Row curriculum. We have Before Five in a Row, and are reading through some of the books in there and also picking books according to our season, theme, or interest. John picked his book out this week. We had read The Little Rabbit (part of the BFIAR), and I happen to own The Little Puppy too. He loved loved loved this one. He has a little stuffed puppy dog that he has now named Charlie and wouldn’t let out of his sight!

These are wonderful books and I think I may get them all — I see that they are selling them for $3.25 and there are stories about a kitten, pig, lamb, and a duck!

Snow!

Cutting cucumbers with dad!

Putting away silverware.

Our letter craft of the week can be found as part of 1+1+1=1‘s Animal ABCs. This was our first try at sponge painting, and John loved it! We did yellow and blue and explored how the two colors made green!